Dine in Dublin restaurant week, October 24-30

Next week is is Dine In Dublin, where almost 50 restaurants around the city will offer a starter, main and dessert, from a set menu, for either €20, €25, or €30.

There’s some fantastic restaurants taking part, including Fallon and Byrne, The Green Hen, Dada, Koh, L’Gueleton, La Cave, and the Hop House, and I’m looking forward to trying out some other spots, including Bleu, which is run by Eamon O’Reilly, he of One Pico. Diners in each restaurant have a choice of five starters, five mains, and three desserts, plus tea or coffee.

Yesterday, my friend Eva and I sampled some of the food that’ll be on offer throughout the week, including a delicious plate of antipasti at Carluccio’s, a pasta house that’s managed to break free of some of the negative associations of chain restaurants.

This was followed by a main in Citron, the restaurant in the Fitzwilliam Hotel that isn’t Thorntons, where we had what must surely be the one of the most extraordinary deals in next week’s Dine In Dublin, a “Study of Beef”: oxtail croquette, chargrilled fillets, roast lap, sweetbreads, ossobuco veal jus, bread mousse & onion baji. The fillet was perfectly cooked, and the playful use of beef brought a well-matched mixture of textures and flavours to this dish. It normally costs €26.50. Here, you’re getting it for €25, plus a starter and dessert –  a bargain by any standards.

There’s a huge variety of  places to try, and something to suit every palate, and it runs until Sunday October 30. Most restaurants kick off at 7pm, some earlier, and there’s no limit on the amount of Dine In sittings each night.